IU’s basketball culture is dead (and the case for why our next coach should be given 6+ seasons)

[pumpfake]

2 hours ago, schoosier said:

..... So until we get a top coach like Iowa, Michigan, Iowa State, Nebraska, and including a few more talents; this curse will never be over.

Maybe we have that coach now (despite the last 12 months fuster cluckery) - only time will tell.  I was not particularly pleased with the DD hire and need to see much improvement to be.  But it's possible he'll build a talented roster and begin winning.  Who knows? But I'm resigned to the fact that he'll get his obligatory 4 years.

[pumpfake]

1 hour ago, go iu bb said:

I believe that Carr was talking about a few years to get the classes balanced out, not to start winning.

Let's hope.

[AH1971]

6 minutes ago, Golfman25 said:

So let’s be good with sucking.  Bold strategy.  

Yeah, I said that?

[LamarCheeks]

Regardless of whether you think our culture is dead or not, today (March 30) is a damn fine day in IU basketball history ... 

1987: Indiana 74, Syracuse 73
1981: Indiana 63, North Carolina 50
1940: Indiana 60, Kansas 42

HAPPY NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP DAY! 

[southernindianahoosier2]

For YEARS I’ve been saying the “little things” around the program matter... uniforms, concessions, game presentation, how the building looks and feels. People laughed that stuff off as superficial and make fun of me on here....

Then Curt Cignetti shows up and proves the point in about five minutes.

He walks in the door and immediately notices: the banners are dusty, the carpet is worn out, the office looks like trash. That’s not vanity; that’s standards. That’s a coach who understands that if the environment is sloppy, the product will be sloppy.

From there, he gets involved in everything:

• DJ/music selection
• Rally towels in the stadium
• Concession upgrades
• Uniform details (Marsh’s gold cleats)
• Getting us a Mascot
• Game day experience
• Even “coaching” the fans – emailing students, pushing them to show up, stay, and be part of something bigger

Nothing is beneath him, because everything adds up to a culture.

When I went to the Peach Bowl in Atlanta, you could feel it. Everyone, and I mean everyone, could rattle off the identity of the program:
“Fast, Physical, Relentless. Six seconds a play. Every play has a life of its own. Not impacted by the play before or after. Every play like it’s nothin nothin”

The entire stadium of IU fans knew the language, the expectations, the direction. That’s culture. That’s clarity. That’s what a real program feels like.

Now compare that to IU basketball post-Knight.

The biggest problem isn’t just wins and losses; it’s that every coach since Knight has basically come in to “coach basketball” and nothing else. They don’t really coach the fans. They don’t shape the environment. They don’t demand standards in how the program looks, feels, and presents itself. It’s recruiting and X’s and O’s, and then hoping that’s enough.

It’s not enough.

Indiana doesn’t just need a good basketball tactician. We need someone who has actually turned a program around before, who understands that building a winner at IU means building a culture from the ground up... from the dust on the banners to the noise in the arena. We need a coach who treats everything as part of the job, not beneath the job.

[Ryno6284]

On 3/30/2026 at 8:38 AM, LamarCheeks said:

Regardless of whether you think our culture is dead or not, today (March 30) is a damn fine day in IU basketball history ... 

1987: Indiana 74, Syracuse 73
1981: Indiana 63, North Carolina 50
1940: Indiana 60, Kansas 42

HAPPY NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP DAY! 

Been alive for 2, remember 1!

[go iu bb]

23 hours ago, Ryno6284 said:

Been alive for 2, remember 1!

Me too and the one I remember I don't remember very clearly. Only vague memories.